The Christmas Op
by Ilmare-Ilse
Summary: Steve treated this Christmas like a tactical op, but the Hawaiian weather and his own extended Ohana messed up his plans completely.


**A/N:** Hey there! This story was written for boothwasframed, who wanted Fluff, h/c, gift giving, something to do with Steve's military service or North Korea. I went with fluff, as much as I could get into it, and lots of Steve, so I really, really hope that you like it! I didn't get a Beta, so any mistakes are mine, I hope there are not too many of them!

* * *

On hindsight, Steve figured that taking this as a tactical op may not have been the best approach. He had thought that it was only a matter of getting the targets to the drop zone at the appointed time. Sure, the planning was a bit flawed, and the time constraints had made the whole operation even more destined to failure, but up until that morning… make that yesterdays' morning, Steve thought looking at his watch, he had been confident that everything would go according to plan.

Unfortunately, the fact that Steve, Danny and Chin were at the moment huddled beside the smart table trying to avoid broken pieces of glass and other projectiles trying to connect with their bodies was evidence enough that things hadn't exactly gone as planned.

* * *

It all had started about a week before Christmas. The upcoming holidays weren't usually a cause for concern, but the gruesome case of a multiple murder had everyone on edge and working around the clock. To make things worse, halfway through the case Kono and Chin had a falling out over Adam Noshimuri, and the icing on the cake had been Danny getting the news that Grace would be spending Christmas at Las Vegas, and there was nothing that Danny could do to stop it.

Doris McGarrett questioning Steve's decision to have both Chin and Danny over for Christmas Dinner had him banning her from any Christmas celebration at his home.

By the time the case was closed, it was December 22th, and Steve was stuck multitasking between stopping Danny from working through the holidays and keeping a concerned eye on Chin.

Was at that moment when Commander Steven J. McGarrett decided that he needed backup, and soon.

* * *

He planned the whole operation in record time, he got the players' acquiesce and got them tickets for the following evening. The timing would be a bit tight, but it was the best he could do on such short notice. He made a quick run through the store and got the essentials for a huge Christmas dinner and aired the spare rooms, since all the hotels seemed to be fully booked.

The 24th was supposed to be a quiet day, with the team working half a day only to finish the paperwork on their latest case. Sometime around 1100, Steve was planning to give some excuse about a meeting with the Governor to go to the airport.

The gentle shower that started to fall that morning over the island had given no indication that it would turn into a mini hurricane in just a couple of hours, so Chin, Steve and Danny had no warning to go home or find a safer place to brave the storm. By 11.00 AM they were stuck at HQ, trying to find anything that would help them to cover the larger glass windows, while Steve was pacing like a caged animal, knowing that he was already late to pick up his guests.

When Steve tried to slip by and head to the airport, claiming that he had a meeting with the Governor, Danny stood in his way. "The Governor? He's probably at home in his own custom made bunker wrapping Christmas presents! Like we should be doing right now, instead of stuck in this death trap that's going to be filled with sharp objects unless you help us board the windows!" He said, waving his hands in the direction of the windows while pulling Steve away from the door.

Steve shook his head making another attempt to leave the building. "I need to get to the airport!" He finally admitted, a little desperately.

Danny's expression turned sympathetic. "Oh, Babe… I'm sure your mom made it out of this hellhole without any trouble…" At Steve's headshake, he frowned. "It's not your mom? Then what? You needed to pick up someone?"

Steve pinched the bridge of his nose, looking through the window at the raging storm. He was finally accepting that there was no way he was going to make it to the airport. "Yeah…" He said, not wanting to reveal his secret, even though the operation was already ruined.

Danny winced. "Sorry babe, but the airport is probably shut down by now… Is it Cath? Mary?"

Steve shook his head. "It doesn't matter…" He said with a tired sigh. The phones had died half an hour ago and the lights were flickering, so there was no way to get in touch with the airport and find out what had happened with the plane.

Danny patted Steve's back sympathetically. "Don't worry, babe… They'll get here tomorrow or the day after…" He said, steering him towards Chin and their window boarding task.

* * *

They had camped out at Danny's office, which had the largest couch and fewer windows, munching on anything they had managed to find in their kitchen and drinking a few beers that Steve had saved for emergencies. They had talked about everything they could think of, from Grace's move to Las Vegas to Chin getting used to life without Malia to Steve's relationship, or lack thereof, with his not-dead mother. They had joked and laughed and they had comforted each other, proving that they had really become a family.

Steve however had not come clean about his operation, and had kept secret the identity of those coming to Hawaii. Chin and Danny had noticed his restlessness but had chosen not to pry too much into it, thinking that it had something to do with Steve's family and that he would come clean when he was ready.

At about 11.00 PM they finally figured that the storm was not letting up so they arranged the furniture around to get some sleep. They settled down for the night, figuring that a Merry Christmas was probably not on their immediate future, but thankful that they were not entirely alone.

Around 3.00 AM, a huge crashing noise brought an abrupt end to their sleep. They scrambled towards the sound and found a large tree trying to make his way inside HQ and threatening to flood the entire room, Smart table included.

Steve moved quickly to try to push the large tree branches back out, but the wind, the rain and the size of the tree made the task impossible. Chin was busy pushing the smart table out of harms' way while Danny was trying to find something to cover the windows, so they didn't have time to warn Steve when a large branch was torn off and dropped right over his head, or maybe he just couldn't hear them, what with things going all dark and quiet all of a sudden.

* * *

"Steve! Come on! Can you hear me? Don't do this to me, you stupid Super SEAL! If you broke your head, Santa's not going to get you a new one! Come on!" Steve could hear Danny's rant over the pounding of his head and the racket of the wind and rain outside, but the harsh sound of thunder brought back memories of SEAL missions going bad and the pain on his body made him tense for an unknown attack.

He bolted upright, or he would have, if Danny and Chin's restraining hands and his own terrible balance hadn't made him tilt to the side and end back down on the floor again. "Easy… easy, brah, you got knocked over the head very hard, don't try to move too fast…" Came Chin reassuring voice.

Steve glared at the two blurry figures hovering over him and tried to stand up again. "We gotta move… This position is not secure… We've been made, we gotta move!"

Danny's hand on his shoulder had him trying to focus on the blonde man. "Babe, we're at HQ, remember? You tried to wrestle with a tree branch and lost, this is not an op… You with me?" He asked in a concerned voice.

Steve blinked to clear his vision and looked around, seeing that they were in fact in HQ, huddled behind the smart table, trying to stay away from the debris being blown into the room by the wind. "Sorry guys, you two alright?" He asked with a groan, trying to sit up again.

Danny and Chin helped him to stay upright, knowing that the stubborn man would keep trying until he got his way. "Are we alright? No we're not alright, because you decided to use your 'shoot first and ask questions later' approach on a fallen tree, a tree that was not done doing the falling, so it fell on your head! We're stuck in the middle of a damn hurricane, the phones are down, the power is gone it's 3 o clock in the morning on Christmas day and we are stuck at headquarters, wet like dogs and trying not to get killed by the elements! So of course we are not alright Steven!"

Steve lifted his hands to press on his eye sockets, trying to get a hold of the pain on his head and the emotion suddenly threatening to come out in an undignified fashion. "I'm sorry Danno… I know this is not how things were supposed to go… I was just trying to make things better…" He said in the steadiest voice he could pull off at the moment.

Apparently his voice was not as steady as he was hoping, because he felt Danny squeezing his shoulder and pulling at his hand to move it away from his face. "Hey, unless you managed to mess up the weather somehow, none of this is your fault, my friend…" He said, waving his hand around to illustrate their current situation. "Well, the tree falling on your head maybe was a little bit of your fault, but other than that, it was just bad luck…" He continued, glancing at the large tree branch that was probably to blame for Steve's headache.

Steve just looked at his knees, giving an unconvinced shrug.

Danny rolled his eyes. "Alright, who was it that you were trying to go pick up at the airport, huh? You've been acting twitchy ever since." He asked, raising a curious eyebrow.

Steve took a minute to answer, not wanting to reveal how badly he had messed up. "It doesn't matter…" He finally said, not really in the mood to elaborate.

Chin and Danny shared a look and with a worried sigh helped Steve back to Danny's office and parked him on the couch. He would have complained, but his head was killing him, and he was exhausted, so he rested his head on the cushion and closed his eyes.

* * *

The rest of the night would have been uneventful if it wasn't for Chin and Danny taking turns to poke at Steve every couple of hours, making obvious questions and generally getting him in an even worse mood if possible. He was surprised when after the 7.00 AM checkup he was left to sleep in peace for about 5 hours.

He opened his eyes to bright sunlight that felt like a poker between the eyes, but the sound of Chin and Danny's voices coming from the next room made him decide to get up.

Danny and Chin were looking at the damage the tree had caused and looked around when they heard Steve come into the room. "Hey! Sleeping Ninja awakens! How are you feeling?"

Steve gave them a tired smile. "Other than the headache, I'm fine… I just wish a couple of annoying bugs hadn't woken me every couple of hours though…" He said, mock glaring at the other two men in the room.

Chin chuckled and Danny just rolled his eyes. "Well, my friend, these annoying bugs are going to be escorting you out of this death trap that served as our shelter for the last 27 hours and driving you home, what do you say?" He asked Steve with a smile.

Steve nodded his head, his mood improving at the good news. "I can't wait, Danno…"

* * *

What the two bugs failed to mention was the stop at the hospital that they forced on Steve, and what they didn't expect, or should have expected with the luck that they were having lately, was the 6 hour wait they had to put up with.

A slight concussion and a bruised shoulder were all they got from the long visit.

* * *

At around 8 PM they were finally pulling up at Steve's house, breathing a sigh of relief after the very long day and night and following day that they'd had.

Of course the relief was short lived, when they noticed the lights coming through the windows of Steve's house.

As always the team moved like a well oiled machine. Danny moved towards the back, while Chin and Steve moved to the front door. They could hear voices from inside, and the front door was unlocked, not showing obvious evidence of having been forced. The phones were still down throughout the island, so if the alarm had sounded at any time during the last couple of days, he wouldn't have known about it.

Steve turned the doorknob and kicked the door so it would open with a bang and rushed into the room. "Five-0! Drop your weapons!" He yelled.

Steve was expecting ski masks and weapons, but instead he found a middle aged man sitting on his recliner in shorts, trying to read a newspaper at the light of a candle. The man stumbled to his feet, picking up an empty beer bottle from the coffee table and wielding it like a weapon. "What the hell is the matter with you?! Get that damn gun off my face, kid!" The man yelled in a familiar accent.

There was a clatter from the kitchen, frightened female voices and finally the sound of Danny coming through the back door. "The back is clear… Hey! Why don't you drop the bottle, buddy?" He asked the older man, pointing the gun in his direction.

What neither Steve nor Chin were expecting was for Danny to suddenly let his hands fall to his sides and his weapon dropping from nerveless fingers at the sight of the man's face. "Pop?" He asked in a shaky, squeaky voice.

On hearing Danny's voice, the older man had turned to him with a surprised expression on his face, turning his back on Steve and Chin. He looked surprised, but smiled at the sight of Danny. "Please don't tell me these are your friends, Ducky…" He asked, pointing a thumb in Steve and Chin's direction.

Danny shook his head, moving his confused look from Steve back to his father, who after a couple of blinks was still standing in the middle of Steve's living room. "Pop!" he finally said, moving to tackle his father with a half stifled sob.

Danny's dad braced for impact and gathered his son in his arms, rubbing his back comfortingly. The sound of the kitchen door opening followed by more clattering of dishes brought a middle aged woman wielding a large frying pan on her hand, which she promptly dropped at the sight of Danny in his father's arms. "Baby!" She exclaimed, rushing to join the hug.

Danny lifted astonished eyes to his mom's face and raised an arm to pull her in. "Mom?!"

The appearance of two younger women completed the circle around Danny, and the glare that one of them gave to the guns still on Steve and Chin's hands shook them enough to holster them and move quietly towards the lanai. "I guess the Williams character is well embedded on their DNA", Chin muttered with a chuckle, while sitting on one of the chairs.

* * *

Half an hour later Danny came out to the lanai with two beers and a water bottle on his hands. His eyes were red and he was still sniffing, but he looked happier than he had looked in months. He passed the beer to Chin and the water to Steve. At his glare, Danny shrugged. "Sorry babe, you're on painkillers, and it's the least you deserve for not consulting with me first! I can't believe that this was what had you in such a mood!" Danny said with a shake of his head.

Steve shook his head, still not believing how things had turned out. "I really thought the plane had been sent back to the mainland, and I didn't have the heart to tell you that your family was stuck in a random hotel during Christmas because of me…" He said, not looking at the blonde man sitting next to him.

Danny chuckled from the side. "Well, lucky for you, the pilot made record time, so their plane landed just before the storm hit. They were stuck at the airport for a good couple of hours though, but they asked a couple of cops and were lucky enough to get in touch with Kono on the radio. She picked them up and drove them over here, she got them in and made sure they were settled and safe before she left. Said she'd be back tonight…" Danny finished with a shrug.

Steve dropped his head in relief, glad that things had turned out alright after all. "That's good…"

Danny chuckled. "Anyways, Mom decided that since you'd bought enough food for a whole army, she would take full advantage of your pantry, so you'd better be hungry!"

Chin chose that moment to make his escape, standing up with a chuckle. "Well, that's my cue, guys… Have a lovely evening…"

Before he could move towards the door, Danny was on his feet, taking his arm and steering him back to his chair. "Didn't you hear what I said? Kono is coming over any minute now, and from what I've heard my family is not the only present this Santa's little helper over here has brought to the island. My folks are keeping their mouths shut about it, so you're stuck here until they get here!" Danny said with a gleeful smile.

Chin looked a little bit scared, and gave Steve a confused look, but didn't try to leave again.

* * *

Half an hour later Kono arrived with an elderly couple that, much like Danny's parents had done with Danny, moved to hug Chin. It all was done in a much more Zen fashion, but they could all swear that Chin was a bit bright eyed by the end of it. Danny moved closer to Steve, liking the satisfied expression on his face. "I had no idea that Chin's parents were still around…" He said in way of a question.

Steve shook his head. "They're not. Those are Chin's Godparents, if you want to call them that… They live over at Kauai, and don't come over to Oahu very often…"

Danny nodded in understanding. He turned to Steve, noticing that there was still something haunting his friend. "What about your mom? Do you know if she managed to leave the island?"

Steve shook his head sadly. "I don't know, and I don't care… If she'd wanted to be here she would be… She would have never left!"

Danny sighed sadly, squeezing Steve's shoulder. "Well, if you're ever in need of a mom, mine said to tell you that she's got room for a crazy, Super SEAL surrogate son, if you're ever interested…"

Steve chuckled, patting Danny's hand. "I'd really like that… Thanks Danno…"

* * *

Danny's mom came out to call everyone to the table, and as they were settling on the table, filled with delicious smelling food, Danny's phone rang. "Well, I guess the phones are back on!" he said with a chuckle as he took the phone out of his pocket. The name on the screen brought a sad smile to Danny's face. "Hey Monkey! Merry Christmas! How's Vegas going?"

They all saw Danny's jaw drop to the floor and him trying to form words for a few seconds before anything could come out. "Wha… What do you mean? Yes! I know there was a huge storm, Monkey, but your mom said you'd leave on the 21st! You're here?! What? Of course I can go pick you up!" He said, moving around the room like a headless chicken.

Kono took pity of him and pulling him by the arm he steered him towards her car. "Come on, I'll drive you!" She said. "Don't eat all the food!" She yelled in the direction of the table.

* * *

Steve chuckled, looking at the large table full of people with a pleased expression on his face. A pat on his back distracted him from his musings and he turned to see Danny's father standing next to him. "You did good, kid. Thank you for taking care of my boy…"

Steve dropped his head in embarrassment. "It's been an honor to have him as a friend, sir…"

"You can call me Doug, kid… You've earned it…" Doug Williams said with a pleased smile.

Steve chuckled. "Thank you, Doug."

Doug's voice suddenly turned serious. "Now, what's this I heard about you getting my Danny shot on the first day that you two worked together?"

Steve gulped, looking at the door, hoping that Danny would come back and ask him to drive him to Rachel's instead, but he had no such luck.

Apparently this was yet another thing he hadn't considered in his plan.

* * *

The End

* * *

**A/N: **Thank you very much for reading, I really hope that you liked it, and I'd love to see what you thought of it!

See you around!


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